Thursday, February 8, 2018

If you love creamy soups, but don’t care for all the butter and heavy cream… cauliflower is your new best friend! This is a dairy-free soup recipe that I re-engineered in a healthier way from a cookbook many years ago and it is still one of my favorites. When you blend cooked cauliflower with vegetable stock, it makes an amazing creamy base for virtually any soup without the traditional “cream” – and it’s extremely healthy and delicious…

To make this soup a bit richer and creamier, I also added some culinary coconut milk. There is so much flavor from the spices and coconut that you won’t believe this soup is dairy-free!

You just need a few basic ingredients, most of which you probably already have in your pantry. Start by dicing up a couple onions, a few cloves of garlic, and a large head of cauliflower. The soup will be blended later, so don’t worry too much about how pretty your chopping is!

Get out your favorite soup pot and get ready for your house to smell incredible…

Saute the onions and garlic in coconut oil for a few minutes. Stir in the spices and cook a few minutes longer… mmmm… smells so good! Then you just throw in the cauliflower and steam it in the pot for about 15 minutes. Pour in the coconut milk and vegetable stock and simmer until all the veggies are completely cooked.

It’s best if you have an immersion hand blender like this one to puree the soup. You just pop it in the pot and blend away, instead of pouring hot soup into a blender and making more dirty dishes.

After it’s well blended, carefully ladle the soup into bowls and top with toasted pine nuts. I recommend that you don’t leave out the pine nuts. They add a depth of flavor to die for!!!

This recipe is so versatile too. Feel free to add in some protein or diced veggies to make an even heartier soup. Here’s the printable version of the recipe…

Add the cinnamon, cumin, paprika, and chili powder and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add the cauliflower and let steam for 10-15 minutes by placing a top on the pot, stir occasionally.

Once cauliflower has softened, mash coarsely with a potato masher.

Add coconut milk and vegetable stock to pot, reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes.

While soup is simmering, toast the pine nuts on a dry pan over medium low heat (5-7 minutes), once slightly brown, set aside.

Puree the soup using a hand blender and serve with toasted pine nuts on top – Enjoy!

Notes

**Please use all organic ingredients if possible**

3.4.3177

Have you ever made “creamy” soup without dairy before? What ingredients did you use? Let me know in the comments! If you know anyone who would love a healthy soup recipe that’s full of flavor like this one, please share this post with them.

Xo,

Vani

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I’m back on the flax train after slacking last month. If you remember, I’ve done seed cycling for several months now, and it was working great. My periods were regular, my skin looked amazing, my mood was mostly steady, and I didn’t have too many PMS symptoms, except for night sweats, which I’m starting to think I will have for my entire life. (I get them right before my period when estrogen levels drop. Apparently, I’m just really sensitive to the change.) Last month, I continued to take the recommended supplements, but I skipped out on the flax and other seeds in my diet, and I definitely noticed a difference. My skin was dry and broke out. I felt much more exhausted and moody. And my PMS symptoms sucked this month (weepy, sore breasts, cramps). I’m assuming the lack of flax is what made things go haywire, so I’m back on the flax train with the hope that it’ll be a better month.

This morning, I made Banana Flax Oatmeal for breakfast. I usually make overnight oats and then just heat them up in the morning, but I didn’t think of it until I was ready to eat this morning. So, I used this little microwave hack and made a double batch, so I have oats ready to go tomorrow morning. I use this awesome Pyrex bowl with lid to make my oats, so I don’t have to worry about them exploding all over the microwave. If you’ve read CNC long enough, you know I’ve had more than a couple oatmeal explosions over the years!

Microwave Banana Flax Oatmeal

Directions: Combine ingredients in a microwave-safe dish with a cover. Place dish in microwave and cook for three minutes. Stir and fully mash bananas. Divide between two bowls. Eat!

FYI: Freshly ground flaxseed work best, so I use this mini coffee bean grinder. I make a small batch every few days (and store them in the fridge), and it takes like 60 seconds start to finish to make a new batch. It’s definitely worth it to get the best effects!

After breakfast, I got Quinn and myself ready for the day. I drop him off at daycare. It’s “mix and match” day, so he is rocking camo pants with a striped shirt and yellow frog socks. He looks so cool.

I head to the gym for a workout, which was a body-weight sweat session, which I am starting to appreciate more and more nowadays. Sometimes, the HEAVY weights are just too much for my body. Of course, I love a good, heavy workout, but it’s nice to have a break every once in awhile.

I stayed after class to do some glute work before heading home. As Mal says: ” It’s legging season!” Haha!

Question of the Day

Do you have hormonal issues? Have you tried seed cycling?

Related: I’ve told a number of real life girlfriends about seed cycling, and they are so skeptical of it. I know it sounds super hippy-dippy, but I’m a believer! Plus, what do you have to lose? If anything you add some healthy fats to your diet! 🙂

“In the winter months, when the sun’s rays are not intense enough to generate sufficient vitamin D production (this is the case for three to five months per year for locations in North American—you know it’s downtime for D when you can’t get a tan even with prolonged sun exposure), supplements and safe-designated artificial tanning implements can be useful or even essential if you are at high risk for deficiency.

If you have an indoor-dominant lifestyle or even a hint of aforementioned risk factors, you should regularly test your blood for vitamin D. (Make sure it’s for ’25-vitamin D’ or ‘serum 25(OH)D.’ You can order this test directly from an online provider like direct labs.com. or, if you are getting a routine checkup, insist they include vitamin D in your blood panels. (Unfortunately, it’s often not included.)”